7 Smart Ways to Improve Mobile App Onboarding – Part 2

This is Part 2 in a two-part series on how to improve mobile app onboarding. Check out Part 1 here.

In Part 1, we wrote about the best practices for creating an effective and engaging app onboarding experience for your users – including keeping it simple, demonstrating value and the benefits of video.

Now we’ll focus on some things you can do to refine the process as you develop it.

Sound Human

Being friendly and non-technical will help create a stress-free experience and make your users feel successful. When a user accomplishes a step, show them encouraging messages or give them praise for it!

A successful onboarding process will be:

Easily understood

Visually appealing to your target audience

Enjoyable so that the user wants to continue

Memorable and personal

Indicate Progress

If your app requires a step-by-step onboarding process, a good practice is to show users how far along in the process they are. That way they don’t feel they’re about to embark on a never-ending journey – nobody likes the unknown.

For example, dots at the bottom of the screen to represent the number of steps, with the current step highlighted, is a good method for indicating progress.

Experiment with the Login Process

Account creation is essential to many apps today, yet it can also lead users to drop off. How can you make this fundamental step as seamless as possible?

Try experimenting with social login versus email login and find out what users prefer. If not requiring a login immediately works for your app, try that too.

Since onboarding provides first-time users with an overview of your app, it’s best to ask for them to sign up after the onboarding process. This way they have an understanding of the app and are more likely (and hopefully excited) to create an account.

What works best for your app will depend on who your target audience is. Do a lot of user research, as understanding your audience is vital.

Listen to Users

Remember that the learning curve is different for everyone. Always think about it from the user’s perspective. You know what your app does and how to use it, but for them it’s their first time ever using it.

Do anything you can to show your app to users as you design the onboarding process, and make sure to get feedback. It’s important to understand their perspective on things so you can improve the experience. The onboarding process is crucial for an app’s success, so you need to do your best to see it from the user’s side.

Conclusion

The completion of an app onboarding experience is like the completion of a first date. A user will already have a pretty good idea if they like your app enough to continue using it or not. This is why onboarding is such an important aspect in establishing long-term relationships with users. Make your users fall in love by using the best practices for app onboarding.

Want to talk about onboarding and how videos can help? Contact us today!